Marking machines of various types have been used commercially for marking indicia on a multiplicity of objects all of which have essentially the same size and shape. For example, machines have been successfully used for applying to relatively small articles such as pharmaceutical capsules, pellets, pills and the like, markings such as alphabetical letters, manufacturer's trademarks or other characterizing symbols for the purpose of ready identification. However, in most commercial procedures, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, one of the primary objects of marking has been to prevent counterfeiting of products and of materials contained therein. In order to achieve this purpose, it has been highly desirable to apply an extremely accurate marking, having such a finely detailed character that counterfeiting is difficult or virtually impossible.
In certain of the machines now utilized commercially, the capsules are all first oriented in predetermined fashion with the cap portions of the capsules facing a given direction, and the bodies facing the opposite direction. In this manner, as the oriented capsules are passed beneath the print imparting rolls of a suitable printing mechanism, they can be uniformly printed in desired manner, e.g., such as on the capsule cap portion or on the body portion. Devices of this general type, in which orientation of the capsules is achieved, are commonly referred to as rectification machines.